I took the liberty of dissecting this video.
“What would happen if you built a refuge for a persecuted people in a place where another people already lived? In the next few minutes you’ll learn why this moral quandary is at the root of the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians.”
This is not “at the root of the struggle” at all. Yes, Israel was built as a refuge for Jewish refugees from Morocco, Poland, Iraq, Russia, Yemen, Hungary, and so on. Yes, Arabs already lived there too, but that’s not an issue. Why should it be? I live in Sweden. We get sh**loads of immigrants every day. That doesn’t mean that anyone has to leave the country in order to make place.
“Many Jews fled harsh persecution in anti-Semitic Europe, especially the nazi Holocaust. Zionists encouraged massive immigration to historic Palestine – at that time a British colony – where Jews had an age old connection, and where small Jewish communities had long existed among larger groups of indigenous peoples.”
This is not a downright lie, but it omits essential parts. Why is there no mention of “Many Jews fled harsh persecution in anti-Semitic Arab countries.”? And why is there no mentioning of the fact that before Israel became a British colony in 1917, it was a Turkish colony. The two first big waves of Jewish immigration occured before WWI, when Israel was still under Turkish occupation. I can tell you why there is no mention of this. It is because the makers of this video want to give you the impression that “the Jewish problem” is created solely by the Europeans. It isn’t.
“But when the UN offered the Jewish immigrants the majority of the land for a new state called Israel, for the indigenous Palestinians who lived there, it was the massive destruction of life. They rejected the UN’s partition plan, and several Arab states invaded the new state of Israel.”
This, on the other hand, is a downright lie. The UN never “offered the Jewish immigrants the majority of the land.” The UN suggested the division of the area into two ethnically mixed states, involving no changes whatsoever of the status quo ownership of land. At the time, Jews owned approximately 6% of the land and Arabs owned 50% Hamas? Let me be honest here – whenever I go to Israel, I expect to see sh**loads of hippies. Peaceful people, not very realistic, but above all anti-war. Is there a single hippy in Gaza? Even one person with like dreadlocks and a guitar? Even one? Show me! It’ll give me hope!
“The deeply harmful pattern of control, repression, and violence profoundly harms Palestinians living under occupation, and Israelis living as occupiers.”
There is no deliberate repression. Control, and violence, are means to maintain peace. And, besides, there are no “Palestinians” living under occupation. The only area that is occuppied – according to international law – is the Golan heights. Having said that, I will not deny that there are certain enclaves (I’m talking Hebron) that are doing their utmost to scare the shit out of Arabs. I don’t like them. I want coexistence.
“This must be broken, to reach a peaceful and secure future for both peoples”
I have no hopes for peace. My only hope is survival.
“Now that you understand the problem, what about the solution, what about peace talks?”
The people behind this video did nothing to give any information at all – on the contrary they did all they could to misinform.
“So far, over 2 decades of US backed peace talks have actually made things worse, by helping Israel continue the occupation.”
Worse? I don’t know. I think the only real result of the “peace talks” is that it has been an eye opener, especially in 2000 (the Arab no to the Clinton-Barak plan). It made many people understand that the Arabs don’t want peace.
“It’s been years of talking while Israel massively expended their Jewish settlements, and literally redrew the land map.”
No. There has been no massive expansion of Jewish settlements (aka villages). Israel and the Palestinian Authority have already negotiated what the future borders will look like, if there would ever come a Palestinian leadership willing to make peace (not likely). All the constructions are made “on the Israeli side” of that border. It’s funny, isn’t it, that building a house is such a wicked thing to do – at least when a Jew does it? And you know what? When I’ve travelled through Judea and Samaria, the most appalling thing to me was to see all the luxury villas built by Arabs (yes, truth). I paid for them. That’s where the “humanitarian aid” goes. Corruption.
“Peace talks are good when they’re real, but not when they’re [incomprehensible word] to cover a land grab.”
The “peace talks” are indeed a cover-up, but not for “land grabbing”. Only one side is interested in peace, and that’s Israel. The peace talks are an illusion to cover up malevolent intentions, but it’s the Arabs who are covering things up. It’s a war of propaganda, and obviously a lot of suckers are buying it. The latest I heard of it (I’ve seriously lost interest in the “peace talks”, for natural reasons), was that Abbas refuses to discuss anything as long as Jews build houses in their villages. I never heard an Israeli express any concerns about houses being built in Arab villages.
“So now what? The current world super power – the United States – has been a terrible friend, enabling Israel’s destructive and self-destructive expansion onto Palestinian land, by funding the Israeli military, the biggest recipient of US foreign aid in the world.”
Destructive and self-destructive. So this is “slightly biased”?
Israel used to be a country of very poor economy, but that has changed lately, thanks to hard work. Israel does not need any aid. The net flow of aid is not from the outside world into Israel, but from Israel to the outside world. Especially in Africa there are lots of people who are aided by Israel (in Zionism the phrase is “tikkun olam”, which means “heal the world”). Countries like Haiti and Turkey have experienced the professional emergency aid that Israel provides after earthquakes and other disasters. Wounded people from Syria are treated in Israel, disregarding which warring fraction they belong to or if they are civilians. And the current fighting in Gaza has not stopped the continuous stream of Arabs from Gaza who get medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. And Afghanistan is the biggest recipient of US foreign aid.
“But there’s another super power that can make a difference – you. There’s a movement with hundreds of thousands of people just like you across the world, including Palestinians and Israelis, protesting, educating, divesting, and boycotting, all to bring nonviolent international pressure on Israel to stop violating human rights of Palestinians.”
I have two objections to this:
- “Educating”. That is the exact opposite of what this movement is doing.
- “To stop Israel violating human rights of Palestinians.” The goal is to eradicate Israel. Different people have different reasons for wanting this. None of the reasons are acceptable.
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